It was now the last week in December, and the deep snows and piercing cold rendered it impossible for Champlain or even the allied warriors to continue their journey further. The Algonquins and Nipissings became guests of the Hurons for the winter, encamping within their principal walled town, or perhaps in some neighboring village not far removed.
After the rest of a few days at Cahiagué, where he had been hospitably entertained, Champlain took his departure for Carhagouha, a smaller village, where his friend the Recollect Father, Joseph le Caron, had taken up his abode as the pioneer missionary to the Hurons. It was important for Le Caron to obtain all the information possible, not only of the Hurons, but of all the surrounding tribes, as he contemplated returning to France the next summer to report to his patrons upon the character, extent, and hopefulness of the missionary field which he had been sent out to explore. Champlain was happy to avail himself of his company in executing the explorations which he desired to make.
They accordingly set out together on the 15th of January, and penetrated the trackless and snow-bound forests, and, proceeding in a western direction, after a journey of two days reached a tribe called Petuns, an agricultural people, similar in habits and mode of life to the Hurons. By them they were hospitably received, and a great festival, in which all their neighbors participated, was celebrated in honor of their new guests. Having visited seven or eight of their villages, the explorers pushed forward still further west, when they came to the settlement of an interesting tribe, which they named Cheveux-Relevés, or the "lofty haired," an appellation suggested by the mode of dressing their hair.
On their return from this expedition, they found, on reaching the encampment of the Nipissings, who were wintering in the Huron territory, that a disagreement had arisen between the Hurons and their Algonquin guests, which had already assumed a dangerous character. An Iroquois captive taken in the late war had been awarded to the Algonquins, according to the custom of dividing the prisoners among the several bands of allies, and, finding him a skilful hunter, they resolved to spare his life, and had actually adopted him as one of their tribe. This had offended the Hurons, who expected he would be put to the usual torture, and they had commissioned one of their number, who had instantly killed the unfortunate prisoner by plunging a knife into his heart. The assassin, in turn, had been set upon by the Algonquins and put to death on the spot. The perpetrators of this last act had regretted the occurrence, and had done what they could to heal the breach by presents: but there was, nevertheless, a smouldering feeling of hostility still lingering in both parties, which might at any moment break out into open conflict.
It was obvious to Champlain that a permanent disagreement between these two important allies would be a great calamity to themselves as well as disastrous to his own plans. It was his purpose, therefore, to bring them, if possible, to a cordial pacification. Proceeding cautiously and with great deliberation, he made himself acquainted with all the facts of the quarrel, and then called an assembly of both parties and clearly set before them in all its lights the utter foolishness of allowing a circumstance of really small importance to interfere with an alliance between two great tribes; an alliance necessary to their prosperity, and particularly in the war they were carrying on against their common enemy, the Iroquois. This appeal of Champlain was so convincing that when the assembly broke up all professed themselves entirely satisfied, although the Algonquins were heard to mutter their determination never again to winter in the territory of the Hurons, a wise and not unnatural conclusion.
Champlain's constant intercourse with these tribes for many months in their own homes, his explorations, observations, and inquiries, enabled him to obtain a comprehensive, definite, and minute knowledge of their character, religion, government, and mode of life. As the fruit of these investigations, he prepared in the leisure of the winter an elaborate memoir, replete with discriminating details, which is and must always be an unquestionable authority on the subject of which it treats.
ENDNOTES:
77. De Poutrincourt obtained a confirmation from Henry IV. of the gift to him of Port Royal by De Monts, and proceeded to establish a colony there in 1608. In 1611, a Jesuit mission was planted by the Fathers Pierre Biard and Enemond Massé. It was chiefly patronized by a bevy of ladies, under the leadership of the Marchioness de Guerchville, in close association with Marie de Médicis, the queen-regent, Madame de Verneuil, and Madame de Soudis. Although De Poutrincourt was a devout member of the Roman Church, the missionaries were received with reluctance, and between them and the patentee and his lieutenant there was a constant and irrepressible discord. The lady patroness, the Marchioness de Guerchville, determined to abandon Port Royal and plant a new colony at Kadesquit, on the site of the present city of Bangor, in the State of Maine. A colony was accordingly organized, which included the fathers, Quentin and Lalemant with the lay brother, Gilbert du Thet, and arrived at La Hève in La Cadie, on the 6th of May, 1613, under the conduct of Sieur de la Saussaye. From there they proceeded to Port Royal, took the two missionaries, Biard and Massé, on board, and coasted along the borders of Maine till they came to Mount Desert, and finally determined to plant their colony on that island. A short time after the arrival of the colony, before they were in any condition for defence, Captain Samuel Argall, from the English colony in Virginia, suddenly appeared, and captured and transported the whole colony, and subsequently that at Port Royal, on the alleged ground that they were intruders on English soil. Thus disastrously ended Poutrincourt's colony at Port Royal, and the Marchioness de Guerchville's mission at Mount Desert.—Vide Voyages par le Sr. de Champlain, Paris ed. 1632, pp. 98-114. Shea's Charlevoix, Vol. I. pp. 260-286.
78. Champlain had tried to induce Madame de Guerchville to send her missionaries to Quebec, to avoid the obstacles which they had encountered at Port Royal; but, for the simple reason that De Monts was a Calvinist, she would not listen to it.—Vide Shea's Charlevoix, Vol. I. p. 274; Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, Paris ed. 1632, pp. 112, 113.
79. Vide Histoire du Canada, par Gabriel Sagard, Paris, 1636, pp. 11-12.